Detecting high-risk, undesirable or fraudulent tenants before you let your property to them is obviously an important aspect of being a landlord. In the current financial climate it is critical a landlord’s lets their property to a good tenant because of this it even more important to have the tenant’s rental history before handing over the keys.
There are things you can do to ensure that you have the best possible tenants. Having a clear understanding of a tenants credit history can allow a landlord to make an informed decision regarding their suitability for them but more than that, can allow you to have all the information you need should something go wrong, these are called Tenant check, tenant credit check or tenant background checks and are available from various companies.
If a tenant does leave owing money or with items from the property you will presumably turn to their file and the information that is stored here could lead to finding them quickly and discreetly.
Finding tenants who have disappeared can be straight forward as long as you have the information you need. The easiest time to obtain this information is when the person requires something from you i.e. the rent of a flat/room/house; at this stage the cards are stacked in your favour. You must use this time to obtain the information that hopefully you will never need. The most important pieces of information are
Previous addresses
Credit Score
Parents address (if future tenant is relatively young)
Date of birth
Employment details name of company but also all details of company
This information will help with trying to locate someone if they should leave owing rent.
tenant verification
How you get this information is to simply ask for it, on top of this you should also be asking for
Bank Statements
References
Permission to search their credit file
Bankruptcy & insolvency information
Once you have these things you should be looking to buy a report that confirms and clarifies the information. There are companies who will access this information for you giving a full report; these reports are usually called Tenant Credit Check.
The report may cost £30 and hopefully will be put away and never be used but should the situation arise where it is needed it will pay for itself many times over. If it does arise then you may need to order a tenant trace.
It is important that you get the first steps right so should you need to trace a tenant through the tenant check you can.
Most tenants are honest and simply want a place to call home; they will pay their rent and not cause any problems for you. There are a few who do not play by the rules and this is your way of saying that you will not stand for it. If you have this information obtaining county court judgements and attachment of earnings is much easier. If you want any chance of getting your money back you need to know where to find the tenant before these measures can be put in place a Tenant Check will help you do just that.
Ryan Shaw is a full time people finder based in the UK with over 10 years people finding experience.
Source : articlesurge
